Introducing some of the new voices on the internet â€“ people who have made their mark by writing a blog or online journal. Mark Savage meets the men and women whoâ€™ve attracted attention in cyberspace by recording their thoughts and impressions on anything and everything.

Johnny Beirne very softly launched Downloadmusic.ie recently. It’s a download service allowing you to download the music of unsigned Irish artists.

Johnny and the other folks behind the site are a group of 3 people with various backgrounds, primarily in e-business and music. Johnny puts it nicely:

If we were on a road trip, there would be a driver (me, the guy answering these questions), a mechanic (the guy who makes sure things work) and a guy that keeps changing the radio station (the music guy).

To download the music you click on the song, listen to a sample if you want and then add it to your basket. When you go to the checkout, the process is nice and simple. If you haven’t registered it will make you do it there and then but it’s quick and it remembers what you want to purchase. Payment is using paypal for now. Fine for net users but paypal takes a fairly percentage from the seller for small transactions. Once that’s all done you are directed to a download page. You have 24 hours to download the files you’ve purchased and you are allowed to download them up to three times.

Johnny believes the main difference between what you hear on the radio and what you donâ€™t is “money not talent”. It’s been a dream of his for years to have an Irish“Irish Top 30″ Music Chart and he believes the Internet has made this possible.

By speaking to the artists and surfing the web Johnny researched the market. He initially sees fans and friends of chart artists as the core customers, but as word spreads, all music lovers. On how Downloadmusic.ie will distinguish itself from the rest of the sites out there, Johnny said:

Firstly, the site is for Independent Irish Artists. Secondly, the chart aspect, with sales figures published, introduces healthy competition and also provides direct feedback to the artists on their marketing efforts.

The mp3s are DRM-free allowing them to be played and moved to and from any mp3 player. Something which many techs would probably agree is a good thing.

we try to provide a mechanism for artist to get their music heard. If easy movement helps this then so be it. Artists already give a certain amount of their material away for free in return for exposure.

From the beginning says Johnny, the artists have been promoting the idea, telling their friends, recruiting other artists etc. He also noted there are also quite a number of activists who are doing great work for the independent music scene in Ireland and abroad, and they have also been promoting the site.

It’s a great idea and it deserves some support since it’s a local operation. Have a look at DownloadMusic.ie yourself.

I hope that you will excuse my discontinuing as a blogger. I genuinely donâ€™t feel worthy of the description owing to my lack of original talent and the selfish (childish) reason that I started blogging. I will continue to check out your brilliant posts and wish you all continued success.

Paige , if you’ve never read her, is a wonderfully talented writer despite her saying she isn’t. It’d be a real shame if she were to go. Too many greats are leaving. Where’s Fiona these days? Daddy Gavin is gone too. (Despite him being younger than me he was like one of the wise fathers of Irish blogging when I started and so many started due to his encouragement too.) If you’ve read Paige or even if not, how about popping over to her blog and signing the comments and ask her to stay if you think she should but at least wish her well. We’re losing too many talented people these days.

If you wanted to go that little bit extra you could blog about her on your blog and explain why you like her writing (if you do) so that at least she gets a proper send off. Gavin, you going to have a going away party too?

another is returning home. Branedy is off to Dublin for his new job. But at least we have some kind of balance as another Cork son is returning soon. Best of luck in Dublin Branedy. Will we only see you blog on weekends now? You got the passport, the Munster Jersey, the Cork GAA top, the Barry’s tea and the Peoples Republic of Cork T-Shirt?

Lastly today is Davy McDonald’s blog. Davy is a graphic designer based up North. Check out his blog for rants and odes to the world of graphic design and look up his past work. Brilliant posters. Davy can design the poster for the next blog awards in February. Maybe I should ask first?